Media City Footbridge

Wilkinson Eyre Architects was commissioned to develop designs for a unique opening footbridge between the proposed Media City development for the BBC at Salford Quays and the Imperial War Museum of the North. The bridge has a dramatic curved form which responds to the radial masterplan of the site and which forms an integral part of an orbital pedestrian route around the canal basin.

The steel bridge deck is supported along one edge by a series of stay cable which transfer loads to a distinctive fanned mast. Behind the mast, the deck flares to form an amenable public space above the water which rotates with the bridge as a counterbalance to the main, 100m moveable span across the Manchester Ship Canal.